Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Diane Lane wore a white fur-textured headband with a fluffy head, looking very cute. She took off the warm down jacket she wore to skiing at Rockefeller Center and sat down on the sofa in the living room.

"You guys go to the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center, is it fun?"

On the afternoons a few days before Christmas, Diane Lane returned to New York after filming from the Canadian location of "Bleach Out" and plunged into Aunt Karen's house, sullenly saying nothing.

Donna brought Ronald, who was coming through a relationship, to book VIP tickets at the Rockefeller Center skating rink and go skating with her. Diane regained a little energy.

"The lights of the big Christmas tree in front of Rockefeller Center are very beautiful. Today, there are people at the ice rink who proposed marriage in public. The ice skating rink will play the wedding march." Donna replied with a giggle.

Diane Lane changed her posture on the sofa, "Why do some people get divorced when they get married?"

Ronald and Donna exchanged glances, knowing the source of Diane's bad mood, abandoning her mother since she was a child, and this time finding a Canadian filming location with her new husband, and Bert theorizing, to get along with Diane, " Compensation" for the debt owed to her daughter for 15 years.

"Hey, everyone is like that. Laura Dern, who played punk girl with me, her parents divorced when she was very young."

"Hey, half of America's husband and wife...they all stay together until they grow old." Ronald made a cold joke.

"Hahaha..." Diane understood the dry and cold smile, "Ronald, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Just ask."

"Did your parents love you before the accident?"

Ronald thought that Diane was going to ask himself what he thought about love, but he didn't expect to ask this. He was speechless for a while and didn't know how to answer.

"Sorry to remind you of sadness, Ronald. I can feel they must love you because you love them too."

"I just found out that my mother quarreled with my father and divorced when I was two weeks old, and now she says she loves me, I really don't know if I should believe her."

"Parents love their children. Maybe your mother has some hardships?" It turns out that Diane is because of this. No one can easily let go of this kind of mother.

"You know what? My mom used to be a club singer and a Playboy middle-aged girl, 1957."

"Looks like you've got a lot of your mother's inheritance.

' said Ronald.

"She said she took care of me when I was a kid until I was three or four, but I can't remember. Then she moved to Georgia with her boyfriend, and New York state law doesn't support interstate custody transfers, so I went with Bert Life.

My memory of being a kid is sitting in the passenger seat of Bert's taxi and getting out with him. "

"Looking at it this way, your mother didn't mean to leave you, but a legal matter. She must love you."

"You're right," Diane Lane cheered again, "so I decided to have it with Bert for Christmas dinner."

Ronald gave him a thumbs up.

"By the way, I heard from Donna that you were nominated for the Golden Globes?"

"Yeah, will you go too?" Ronald was invigorated when he heard this, and he was also an insider who could attend the Golden Globe Awards dinner.

"I'm not going, the Ballon d'Or is a trophy bought."

"How do you say this?" Ronald looked at Di An with disdain. He said that Di An entered the film and television industry much earlier than him, so he hurriedly asked for advice.

"Haven't you heard a proverb? Buy the Golden Globes, win the Oscars. The Golden Globes call stars to ask if they're going to the awards dinner, and if the star wants to be there, they give the award.

If the star doesn't go, give the second-ranked nominee another shot. This shady story was exposed before, and the FTC also suspended NBC's eligibility to broadcast the Golden Globes for several years, and has just resumed. "

"It seems that the Golden Globes only have less than 90 judges, which is better than the Oscars." Ronald thought to himself.

"But I'm going to the Oscars next year, and if you're nominated for an Oscar, we can meet at Dorothy Chandler Palace. I think that theme song, Fame, is pretty good, too, and you have a good chance. ." Diane Lane pretended to be old-fashioned.

"Bless you, Diane. Which movie are you in for an Oscar nomination?" Ronald asked.

"Hey, I don't have any of them. The agent arranged for me to be the female companion of other male stars."

...

"Jingle bells, jingle bells,

Jingle all the way.”

A few days later, on Christmas Eve, Ronald went to Aunt Karen's house for Christmas dinner, jingle bells all the way.

Diane really went back to Bert's house to spend Christmas with her old father.

Aunt Karen had ham ready in place of the bad turkey, then vanilla bread, and dessert with various fillings.

"Amen..." The three of them finished their prayers, and Ronald opened the red wine bought at the grocery store and poured it for everyone.

"cheers!"

"Diane finally reconciled with Bert?" Ronald asked Donna.

"Temporary ceasefire. Like the Soviet Union in Afghanistan."

"Well, I thought she moved home..." Ronald replied.

"Bell bell bell..." the doorbell remembered.

It's not going to fall out so soon, Ronald thought.

"Come on," Aunt Karen got up and went to open the door.

It was not Diane who entered the door, but a middle-aged black woman. As soon as she entered, she hugged Aunt Karen and cried.

When Ronald saw it, it turned out to be a good friend of Aunt Karen, the widow of his uncle's comrade-in-arms, and a partner in the leg warmer business, Mrs. Davis. Also a salesman and security guard for the leg warmer company, mother of Bud Davis Jr.

"I don't know what to do, Bud Jr. was arrested and they said they would charge him with a federal felony. He was a kid..."

"What happened to little Bud? Isn't he working for the leg warmer company?" Ronald was surprised. He always thought that the child of his uncle and comrade-in-arms was working in the company and was on the right track.

Mrs. Davis cried to Aunt Karen about the arrest of Bud.

It turned out that Little Bud helped sell leg warmers at the RTKD store, and was mocked by a group of "brothers" for doing women's business. Young Bud, a hot-headed teenager, gave up his well-paying job to sell pirated tapes to his "brothers".

With some high school girls he met in the store selling leg warmers, he actually did a good job in the pirated tape business, and quickly became some of the highest-selling "sales".

But I didn't expect that the cleaning operation organized in New York before Christmas was caught on the spot and everyone got all the stolen goods. In addition to his stock, the so-called "brothers" also planted all the inventory in the warehouse that was inspected on the head of Little Bud, and the prosecutor who got all the evidence was going to sell him as pirated copies and illegal organizations. Unlicensed goods, infringement, etc., are prosecuted as felony.

"Why didn't you come to me sooner?" Aunt Karen rebuked Mrs Davis.

"We black people are often arrested innocently, and usually they are released without any problems. But this time, little Bud's so-called friends framed him and put everything on his head. The priest of the church said that this time his felony was very serious. There may be no escape unless there is a good lawyer..."

Well, it turns out that Mrs. Davis felt that she would be arrested and locked up for a few days at most, and then she would be released after a beat.

Seeing Aunt Karen looking for help, Ronald had to pick up the phone. Who made my uncle and Bud Davis a comrade-in-arms from birth to death? The two died together in Vietnam. Old Bud was still trying to rescue his uncle from being seriously injured. The two widows had a very deep bond.

It was not easy for lawyers to work on Christmas Eve. Ronald told lawyer Lindsay Dole about the situation, and she promised to come and ask tomorrow.

"The matter of your aunt's friend's son is very troublesome," Lindsey Dole called Ronald back the next day, "If a lawyer can get up early to intervene, then his situation is at best a misdemeanor, and the value is not high.

But now the accomplices in charge of manufacturing and wholesale put all the blame and evidence on Budd Jr. They also concocted so-called witnesses, who came to Little Bard to be in charge of wholesale.

Although this witness's accusation is ridiculous, the value of the confiscated pirated tapes has exceeded the upper limit of misdemeanor, and the prosecutor must charge him with a felony. Even if there is a good result in court, the sentence can be suspended.

But the felony will follow him throughout his life, and there will be great obstacles to work and school in the future. New York State employers have the right to investigate employees for felony convictions prior to hiring. "

"No way, how many tapes can he sell?"

"I found a warehouse in a public housing next to the Harlem subway station, and the goods are worth tens of thousands of dollars."

"Why don't you like working with me? Bud Jr." A few days later, Ronald and a colleague of Attorney Lindsay, Eugene, a big black lawyer, met Bud Jr.

Little Bud pretended to be very strong at first, but after Eugene explained to him the meaning of a felony and its impact on him in the future, he also fainted.

It seems that Mrs. Davis taught him well. Little Bud did not turn into a black man in a real violent block. He looked at the social order in reverse and became a supporter of the gang.

"I'm sorry... it's just that they keep laughing at me for being a bitch and selling things for girls, I..."

"So our best outcome is to seek probation and then appeal to cancel the felony record?" Ronald asked Lindsay and black lawyer Eugene at the law firm.

"I'm afraid that's the case," the lawyer replied while holding a copy of the case materials.

"Okay, at most, let him come to the leg warmer company in the future, and then do a sales." Ronald thought, it seems that little Budd can't find other jobs, and the public high school can't continue. Continue to sell the goods, he has Mrs. Davis to restrain him, and there will be no problem for the time being.

After this incident, he should know what happened to the so-called brother, he is nothing more than a free channel and a qualified scapegoat.

"You're not black, don't understand, Lindsay." Eugene laughed and interjected. Ronald hired him to work on the case, also valuing his experience with black cases.

"We can get him to plead guilty and..." Eugene whispered his opinion in Lindsay's ear.

"This? I've only seen this kind of operation in Harvard's law textbooks. Can this be done in New York now?" Lindsay asked with wide eyes.

"Of course, this requires the cooperation of the assistant prosecutor in charge of the case. I remember your roommate Helen Gable is the assistant prosecutor in the Manhattan judicial district?"

"Yes". Lindsay glanced at Ronald and said, "I'll ask Helen..."